Players participating in NFL pro days can be separated into two categories.

For players like Ohio State’s Bradley Roby, Carlos Hyde, Ryan Shazier and Jack Mewhort, yesterday’s workout in front of representatives from all 32 NFL teams was a chance to secure or enhance an already-strong draft position.

For other Buckeyes hoping to continue their careers, yesterday represented their last, best shot to get on a team’s radar. To guard Marcus Hall, it was an opportunity to move beyond an infamous moment that marred an otherwise impressive career transformation.

When reporters approached Hall, he politely asked not to be peppered with questions about his ejection against Michigan for throwing a punch, followed by his flipping off fans as he left the field. That gesture caused Ohio State coach Urban Meyer to bench him for the Big Ten championship game against Michigan State.

“I’m trying to leave that in the past,” Hall said.

But the questions came anyway, and Hall answered them graciously. After all, NFL teams have certainly asked him about that lapse in judgment.

“I just tell them I got caught up in the moment,” Hall said. “I don’t try to give them a sob story. I just tell them I lost it. I just feel like my love for the university and this game came out in the wrong way. I responded ‘below the line,’ as Coach Meyer would say.”

Even if Hall would like to put the incident behind him, Ohio State fans seemingly can’t get enough of it. When they ask him to sign an item with his likeness, it tends to be of his Ann Arbor moment and not of him pancaking a defender.

“I just show up to the signing like every other player, and that’s what the fans want,” he said.

Hall said his signing of some items — he said he has turned down many — is simply him accepting the incident, not embracing it.

“I don’t want anybody to think that I’m proud of it,” he said. “I’m more so trying to take a negative thing and turn it into a positive.”

Hall had an undistinguished career at Ohio State until he broke through under the new coaching regime. He improved his physical conditioning by shedding weight and was lauded as perhaps the most improved offensive lineman on the team.

“I feel I had a chance to show the scouts I could move a lot better than in previous years,” Hall said. “About a year ago, I started making this transformation.”

Hall wasn’t invited to the NFL combine last month. It’s impossible to say definitively that Hall’s exclusion was a consequence of his ejection, but it couldn’t have helped his chances.

“That was a big hit for me, not being invited,” Hall said. “But adversity, you fight through it and show up here at pro day.”

Hall is considered a possible late-round pick.

Pro day highlights

Shazier ran as fast as 4.33 seconds in the 40-yard dash, which will help his push to get into the first round of the draft. Receiver Corey Brown said he ran a 4.40. Hyde, Roby and Jack Mewhort chose not to run the 40. Hyde suffered a strained hamstring at the combine.

Safety Christian Bryant, who suffered a broken ankle against Wisconsin in September, has been medically cleared but is waiting until closer to the draft, which is May 8-10, to work out.

“I’m pain-free but it’s just not at a level where I’m comfortable competing with it,” he said.

Linebacker Etienne Sabino also participated. Sabino graduated last year and was briefly with the New York Giants in 2013. Sabino, who now weighs 250, said he ran a 4.55 in the 40.

“I want to show people I’m still here and I’m still relevant,” he said. “I know I can play in the NFL. Hopefully, something happens in the next couple of days.”